Shipping and display box



Aug. 12, 1947. G. J. HoFl-:LDT ETAL SHIPPING AND DISPLAY BOX Filed NOV.10, 1944 Patented Aug. 12, 1947 SHIPPING AND DISPLAY BOX George J.Hofeldt, Riverside, and Charles W.l

Lofgren, Oak Park, Ill., assignors to Sanford Ink Company, a corporationof Illinois Application November 10, 1944, Serial No. 562,758

(Cl. 20S- 44) 2 Claims.

The present invention has for its object to produce a simple and novelbox in which quantities of small articles, little bottles of ink, forexample, may be securely packaged and occupy a minimum amount ofshipping or storage space while, upon reaching the merchant, thearticles may remain in the box and yet be displayed effectively on acounter or elsewhere.

The various features of novelty whereby our invention is characterizedwill hereinafter be pointed out with particularity in the claims; but,for a full understanding of the invention and of its object andadvantages, reference may be had to the following detailed descriptiontaken in connection with the accompanying drawing, wherein:

Figure l is a side view of a box or package embodying the presentinvention; Fig. 2 is a view similar to 1, with the cover of the boxremoved; Fig. 3 is a top plan View of the box, the cover being olf as inFig, 2; Fig. 4 is a perspective view of the box cover, detached from thebox; Fig. 5 is a side view of one of the trays removed from the box;Fig. 6 is a top plan view of the tray of Fig. 5, iilled with bottles,whereas in the latu ter view the tray is empty; and Fig. 7 is a sectionon line -l of Fig. 1.

In the drawing the invention is illustrated in connection with packagingand displaying bottles of ink or the like and, for the sake of brevity,the detailed description will refer to this embodiment only, although itwill ibe apparent that quantities of other things may be handled in thesame way.

In carrying out our invention we construct a box all of the sides ofwhich are preferably rectangular when the box is closed. In thearrangement shown, the box consists of a long body member I, open at oneend, and a short cover member 2 telescoped over the open end of thesame. In cross section, in a plane parallel to the end walls of the box,it is about as wide as one of the bottles and twice as high as thebottle. Cooperating With the box are a plurality of trays 3, two beingshown. The trays are about as long as the box and about as wide; thelength of the box and the tray being such that a predetermined number ofbottles A, arranged side by side, completely fill a tray. With thisarrangement two lled trays may be inserted` one on top of the other, inthe box and thus completely lill the box.

It will be .seen that the open end of the body of the box, or boxproper, is not cut olf square but terminates in an inclined plane thatleaves the bottom wall 4 longer than the opposite or top wall 5 by anamount about equal to the width of a bottle. Consequently when the box,without its cover, is set down on the bottom wall a portion of each trayprotrudes from the open front end of the box. Thus the first bottle inthe upper tray is almost fully bared, while a fragment of thecorresponding bottle in the lower tray can be seen. In other words, thecontents of the box are eifectively displayed, the forward part of theupper tray can be grasped to pull it part way or all the way out, orboth trays can be slid out simultaneously. When a tray is taken out itscontents are not disturbed but are held together by the tray. Anydesired number of boxes may be placed side by side to present theappearance of a single wide box or case that is exhibiting two rows ofbottles, one above the other, distributed across the front.

When the box is full and the cover is on, the trays act as strutscooperating with the long bottom wall to resist end thrusts on the box,so that the box remains strong and rigid notwithstanding the fact thatthe front end of the main member is not square. The cap or cover must,of course, be deep enough to overlap the short top wall 5 a substantialdistance to create a tight joint, and this further reenforces the box.

It will thus be seen that we have produced a simple and novel box orcarton which, when lled, is as sturdy and rugged as though the open endof the main or body member were square and which becomes, upon merelyremoving the cap or cover, a means for effectively displaying thecontents. It will also be seen that the box is easily lled with bottlesor other objects, which are rst placed in trays that are then slippedinto the box and may at any time be removed and be put back again if theentire contents of a tray `are to be examined or exhibited.

While We have illustrated and described with particularity only a singlepreferred form of our invention we do not desire to be limited to theexact structural details thus illustrated and described; but intend tocover all forms and ar- 3 substantially the length of said longer wall,bottles that are higher than the depth of the trays filling the latter,the parts being so proportioned that the filled trays have a combineddepth about equal to the distance between the said walls, the 5 CHARLESW. LOFGREN. C 15 REFERENCES CITED The following referenc-:es are ofrecord in the le of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATE-NTS Number Name y Date 541,060 Arnold June 18, 1895821,350 Ferris Mar. 22,1906

'10 1,830,583 Ritzwoner Nov. 3, 1931 965,019 Schandein et al. July 19,1910 1,335,863 Sprnkell Apr. 6,1920

.2,164,505 Edwards July 4, 1939 439,401 Heinemann Oot. 28, 1890

